When running for school board, one question was asked a number of times, especially in the debates and usually asked by students, “How will we provide more teacher/student interaction?” I assumed that students wanted a more personal experience in their learning until an article last week made me realize that a lot more was behind this question. The BBC News wrote, “Secondary school pupils are so scared of looking stupid in maths lessons they will not tell their teachers if they do not understand, suggests research.” The article continued, “The reasons pupils gave for not asking for help more often were that they were worried about looking foolish, were embarrassed or did not want to draw attention to themselves.” In other words, they lack confidence, which could be overcome if teachers had the time to spend more one-on-one with their students.

Yesterday, David Sirota published an article in Salon entitled “How Finland became an education leader.” The article is based on an interview he had with Harvard researcher, Tony Wagner, who narrates a new documentary called, “The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System.”

I’ve never been to Finland. I want to go. But this makes a nice follow-up to yesterday’s blog post, “Math in Singapore.”